In this class (Class 8), we discuss chapters 1 and 2 of Sri Aurobindo’s Essays on the Gita (abbreviated EG) (pp. 1-19)
Study questions:
1. Please explain briefly what Sri Aurobindo means on p. 8 when he says that the Gītā “does not cleave asunder, but reconciles and unifies.”
2. What is Sri Aurobindo’s main objection to how “polemist commentators” (p. 9) have interpreted the Gītā?
3. According to Sri Aurobindo, how does the Gītā at once build on, and go beyond, the Upaniṣads? That is, what is new in the Gītā that is not found so explicitly in the Upaniṣads?
4. According to Sri Aurobindo, what is the main difference between the Avatara and ordinary people like us? (Hint: the answer is on pp. 13-15 of Essays on the Gita.) And can you connect what Sri Aurobindo says about the Avatara with any of Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings?
5. Why, according to Sri Aurobindo, is the “historicity of Christ” (p. 15) important primarily from a historical rather than a religious standpoint?
6. What does Sri Aurobindo mean by “the eternal Avatar” (p. 17)? How is the eternal Avatar different from Avataras like Christ or Rama?
7. Do you have any questions about the reading? Did you have difficulty understanding anything? Do you have any doubts or confusions?